You might look at HR and IT as the corporate equivalent of chalk and cheese. HR is typically focused on people, while IT is focused on technology. But in an era where hybrid is the future of work, organizations must be willing to bridge that gap.
“Our role as professionals is to cross over into [the technology] space…” states Claire Herring, CLO at Blue Ocean Brain, and keynote speaker at the recent GDS Group HR Innovation North America summit. “…Because we know that frustrations with how we work is one of the reasons that people choose to leave and jump to another organization.”
What are the benefits of synchronizing HR and IT?
- Understanding the tech = Understanding the workforce
In a hybrid world of work, leaders are increasingly reliant on tech and applications to simply function, let alone flourish.
A successful HR leader’s “raison d’etre” is centred around their understanding of the workforce and what they need to drive the business’s objectives. Therefore, it is imperative for HR executives to have a grounded understanding of the ways in which their workforce’s tech can go from being the ultimate enabler, to the ultimate impediment.
Claire Herring addressed her HR industry peers saying, “if you’re not a technologist, that’s absolutely fine. But it is important to be very choosey and selective about the technology and tools that you want to place in the ecosystem and organization overall.”
HR leaders must consider if they have the knowledge or capacity to be choosey, and if not, how their peers in IT can help.
- Creating Opportunities in a Digital World of Work
“The Great Resignation” (nowadays dubbed the Great Realization) has forced HR leaders to ask: “Why are talent leaving, and how can we encourage them to stay?”
McKinsey & Company conducted a survey of 13,382 employees across the world, and the top-ranking reason they shared for voluntarily quitting their jobs was a “lack of career development/advancement.”
Naturally, initiatives around employee development, opportunities and self-actualization have soared to the top of executives’ priority lists.
But how do we create those opportunities in a digital setting?
Most – if not all – of us can remember moments in our careers where an opening arose from serendipitously “bumping into” the right person, or the right moment, at the right time in the office.
But in an era where employees increasingly dial-in from home, and teams globalize to the extent that they may go years without meeting their colleagues or bosses in person, it begs the question if those opportune -and often career defining – moments will dwindle.
Herring calls on the importance of “bumping into” learning. “Alongside mandatory training, make sure you’re layering-in opportunities for people to ‘bump into’ content that they need to see [online].”
In the spirit of this, IT executives could offer a world of ideas and support as HR leaders look to create accidental learning and opportunities for growth as we digitally interact.
- Making Employee Data Work for You
From appraisals, to training, exit surveys, to identifying gaps in managerial performance, employee data can give HR executives access to unbiased, actionable insights from an employee perspective, at a global scale.
This is a superpower that – when unlocked properly – can boost employee experience, and free up the HR team to innovate.
However, often this colossal resource goes to waste as HR leaders struggle to harness it to truly benefit the organization.
So where can they untap a reservoir of knowledge in choosing databases, and collecting actionable, reliable data? And who will have curated a best-in-class tech and data-driven culture?
… You get the idea.
Building the Bridge
So, the idea of synchronizing these two vital – but often siloed – departments certainly has merit, but where do you start?
- Communicate
Create a joint committee or working group. This will allow representatives from both departments to come together on a regular basis to discuss ideas and collaborate on solutions.
- Experiment with a single project
Even with a joint committee in place, the idea of synchronizing such historically polar departments can seem daunting… So, start small.
For example, if “turnover” is a concern, and your employee data indicates a peak in churn within the first few years of onboarding, encourage both departments to review the process. To what extent has the onboarding procedure adapted to an increasingly digital climate? Happeo found that 69% of employees are more likely to stay with a company for 3 years if they experienced “great” onboarding, so consider how a collaborative approach between HR and IT could uncover a solution.
- Keep an Open Mind.
Collaboration between diverse thought leaders can be a confusing and messy process, however, the shared goal is clear: To meet and exceed the business’s objectives, adapt to the times, and retain the best talent in the world. Arguably then, in a tech obsessed age of hybrid work, HR can’t live without IT, and vice versa.
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